Digital marketing news – 5 alternative stories

Welcome to our latest 5:5 digital marketing news round-up. As usual we look at an array of stories from both the digital marketing and social media worlds. Our latest addition covers quite a few stories from Google including the revamp of Google Plus to looking at the search engine giant’s mortgage shopping tool. As we always say in our 5:5 posts, there’s never a dull moment in the digital marketing world!

Google Plus Gets A Revamp

The “new” Google Plus which has been recently rolled out will now concentrate on both communities and collections rather than focusing on using a traditional model for a social networking site that would predominately be centred around personal profiles and friendships.

Earlier this year Google started to strip down what was once called the “social layer”, key features such as Hangouts and photo sharing were separated from the platform which led to many in the media saying that this was the final nail in the coffin for G Plus.

How wrong they were, as last week they announced it had “reimagined” the service. (FT.com, November 2015).

On Google’s blog, the company mention that the new version of Google Plus is a lot simpler to use which is great for newbies. As a massive Google Plus user myself, from experience when I have talked to friends and family about the platform the usual response is “I don’t get it”.

The revamp, as previously mentioned focuses on communities and collections so it tailors to bring people together and share their common interests. Though this has always been the case, the platform has always been about connecting with others who share similar interests, I guess with the revamp, it makes Google Plus more user friendly and the stripped down feel will definitely attract new users.

If you like the sound of the revamp or if you are a regular user and are not sure about the new update, I strongly recommend watching Martin Shervington’s tutorial – click here.

May The Force Be With You! Google Wants You To Decide If You’re A Jedi Or Sith

Google have released a new Easter Egg which lets users choose which side of the force they’d like to be on, and then customise their accounts appropriately. (NME, November, 2015).

Once you have decided what side you want to represent, Google will give you some really cool features such as a background for your Gmail, the YouTube volume slider and progress bar will either be red or blue – and the most awesome feature from the list, your location on Google Maps will change to an X-Wing or TIE Fighter.

Your Star Wars themed Google account will last until February. Which side will you choose? Click here. Below : Google’s Star Wars trailer.

New Bing Shopping Features Roll Out In Time For Black Friday

Microsoft has decided to roll out new features just in time for the Christmas shopping season in order to give Bing users a better online experience.

The company have mentioned that they have added more data to product images as well as prices, product reviews, and ratings. Bing also visually shows similar products to the one a user is looking for just in case it is out of their price range.

In addition, Microsoft is testing a new feature that shows an image stream that have been favourited by a Bing user.

Do you use Bing? If not, will you be using the search engine over the Christmas shopping period?

Facebook To Trial New Relationship Status Tool

Recently it was revealed that Facebook will be tweaking its relationship status function to allow ex-partners to disappear from view without users removing them as a friend. (The Independent, November 2015).

The social media giant will trial the new relationship tool in The States with plans to later roll out the changes to the rest of the world after receiving feedback.

The relationship tool will allow Facebook users to limit their photos, videos, and statuses that an ex might see. Without having to delete or block a former partner, Facebook will also make sure their name and profile picture do not appear in the news feed.

Moreover, their name will not be suggested when users tag friends in a photo.

The search engine giant is launching this product under its ‘Compare’ brand, which already includes an auto insurance comparison tool. You may or may not already know this but Google has already offered a similar mortgage service here in the UK.

So how does it work? Google has partnered with Zillow and LendingTree. It looks like Google will pull data from lenders on Zillow’s mortgage marketplace instead of working with lenders directly.

The partnership helps borrowers by providing them with the industry’s most accurate, real-time information about home loans and mortgage lenders whilst giving them a simple user experience whilst shopping for a mortgage. Google Compare walks users through the basic steps (e.g. ZIP code, price of home, down payment) and then asks for the duration a user plans to live in the house. At the end of the process, it will gives the user a recommended lender based on preferences, plus a full breakdown of all the fees associated with the loan.